One of Dave Brailsford's favourite analogies for his management style at British Cycling was that he resembled a conductor, looking across an orchestra of coaches and riders and waving a baton to adjust timing and tune. If the parallel stands, then during their 10-year partnership, Shane Sutton became Brailsford's lead violin – the man down in the orchestra pit keeping it all moving along while the conductor did his baton-waving for the public.

En route to Beijing Sutton was a key No2; as London approached, he led the track programme as head coach while Brailsford focused increasingly on building Team Sky. It all changed as of Friday, when Brailsford confirmed his departure as performance director after several weeks of rumours, to devote himself full-time to his Sky role. Sutton was named as the technical director for rider performance, with a beefed up senior management team around him, "to make sure Shane can keep doing what he does best, having direct input to the riders and coaches," as the BC chief executive, Ian Drake, put it.

In many ways, the 56-year-old Australian is Brailsford's polar opposite. Brailsford, for example, has never professed to being a coach, although he is frequently described as one; Sutton is all coach, and his uncompromising, hands-on style has benefited a string of British riders from Nicole Cooke to Sir Bradley Wiggins via Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton. While Brailsford has a tendency to resort to the language of a business manual, Sutton rarely minces his words.

Typically, he had harsh words for several of the men's team pursuit squad – apart from their leader Ed Clancy – after the world championships in Cali, Columbia, and more recently he stated his belief that the British Cycling squad needed "freshening up", and that he had "gone stale" as head coach.

Sutton's rise has been one of the most exquisite ironies of the onward march of British Cycling since Athens, given the feeling that underpins any contest between Great Britain and Australia – in cycling, the team pursuit in particular always has an Ashes ring to it – and the friendly rivalry is given an added twist by the fact that Shane's younger brother, Gary, is the Australian women's endurance coach.

In the 30 years that have elapsed since he came over to race the UK professional circuit, somehow ending up riding the 1987 Tour de France, Sutton has become the most British of Australians. His time at the helm of Welsh cycling has left him with a penchant for rugby, and he has put down roots there as well as in Manchester, where a 2012 film about Wiggins showed him ironing his own shirts while living above a bike shop.

Sutton seems to be the only coach who can keep Wiggins's nose to the grindstone; he and the Tour de France winner started out as drinking partners, until Sutton went on the wagon in 2003. When Wiggins hit a crisis after his disappointing performance in the 2010 Tour de France, it was Sutton he turned to. In his book My Time, Wiggins lauds Sutton's toughness and loyalty. "This guy would do anything for me. If you're on the wrong side of him, you've got an enemy for life, but if you're on the right side, he'll take a bullet for you."

It was Sutton who called Wiggins at 4am to tell him that his father, Gary, who Sutton knew from his racing days, had been killed in an incident that remains unexplained to this day. "He's constantly thinking about his athletes, often to the detriment of himself and his family … the reason why Sir Chris Hoy and I are happy to take a bollocking from him is because when he tells you you know he cares about you," Wiggins wrote. "He is incredidly observant, always watching and thinking."

Where Brailsford always seemed to maintain a certain distance from Great Britain's riders, Sutton seems far more involved, constantly communicating, even when the riders cannot hear him because he is in the stands. He also has a unique way with words, once describing an out-of-form Wiggins as unable to knock the foreskin off a rice pudding.

"My first impression was that he was a complete nutter," Hoy wrote. "He has incredible enthusiasm. His willpower is astonishing. And he's a stubborn bastard … a force of nature, a bundle of contradictions … the ultimate people person, he's in your face, intense and scarily perceptive."

He will lead a youthful Great Britain squad towards Rio, albeit one who underperformed at the world championship; and if anyone can reinvigorate them, Sutton could well be that man.